My Moroccan-Themed 60th Birthday Bash

Many times I look at pictures of the Namakwaland flower extravaganzas when people start posting their visits to the flower heaven in Spring. It usually happens after a cold and stormy winter, and I think how our dear Lord could put such splendour together.

The flowers grow from dormant seeds during the rainy season and bloom when the sun shines bright in Spring. There seems to be no planning involved, yet in the scheme of The Great Gardener, everything happens at the right time.

The planning and execution of my 60th birthday mimics that of The Great Gardener’s plans.

During my winter months, after the passing of so many family members and friends, I hesitantly thought of the big celebration. But, as in winter times, yet another storm approached and passed. I could not think of celebrating a party.

Then one evening, my husband, Danville mentioned that I had changed. That I was not myself anymore. I barely smiled and never laughed out loud anymore… My signature laugh that he knew, and described as “like a burst of sunshine on a cloudy day”, was nowhere to be found.

Francis and her husband Danville and her two birthday cakes: a colourful Morrocan-themed one, and one Japanese-themed cake - a surprise by Danville (Francis loves all things Japan). Click images to expand.

Yet, the seeds were growing in the winter landscape. I put myself together. Thought “this is not what God planned for me, and my 60th will not be my final bow in this world”. I am going to celebrate my birthday as so many who wanted it - were waiting for it - could not!

Spring bloomed in my mind. And the beautiful, vibrant colors of Morocco, a place I want to visit, opened up the vision I had for a party. Die eenvoud van die Namakwalandse blomme-pallet, en die mistieke Noord-Afrika kleure het ’n plantjie geword wat vermenigvuldig het in my 60ste partytjie by Blue Creek Weddings and Functions in Stellenbosch.

So how did it end up in Stellenbosch?

As I live in Abu Dhabi and have limited time during our vacations in South Africa, I thought of getting a few women together at a restaurant or a wine farm where we would all celebrate life and friendship. I was shocked at the costs when I started calling wine farms that caught my eye - some asked almost R100 000 only for the venue! I thanked the person for their time, walked out and thought, “wat gaan die mense eet!”.

Then I thought of taking my women friends out to a beautiful restaurant with magnificent views over the Somerset mountains and sea. The restaurant was a good runner up, but something was missing. And, of course, there were the hidden costs of either renting tablecloths or extra glasses, and there may not be enough space for my 60 planned guests.

A dear friend, Portchie, then mentioned that I should take a look at Blue Creek Weddings and Functions in Stellenbosch. I fell in love immediately with the setting: the blue majestic Stellenbosch mountains, the intimacy of the smaller rustic venue, and the manicured gardens. It became my first choice and I set the wheels rolling for expanding my guest list to include my male friends too.

But, as I was still in Abu Dhabi, I was contemplating who would feed my esteemed guests. I thought about a company that I used many years ago when they were just finding their feet. They impressed all of us at my daughter’s pop-up clothing store and birthday party in 2013. Their canapés kept flowing the entire evening.

I called them, invited them for a Zoom meeting to discuss the menu and budget. When the manager asked for the meeting to be postponed for an hour, after I schedule the meeting three weeks prior, it did not sit well with me. When he could not open his camera during the Zoom meeting, I was not happy to say the least. But because the options on their menu were what I wanted, I plough ahead. After about an hour of a faceless voice, he said he would come back to me with a detailed quote.

What a shock it was. The man wanted a complete kitchen renovation at Blue Creek for his seven chefs, he almost wanted to rebuild the rustic setting to accommodate round tables and bouquets of flowers hanging from invisible flower pots. Remember, I work in Abu Dhabi, and it seems he thought that I was the crown princess of the beautiful desert country. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was that he expected me to pay taxi fare for his staff in addition to their fee. I declined gracefully, and deleted his contact details.

But Blue Creek stayed in my mind, and a plan started to form. What if I could do it myself? I could hire most of the cutlery, underplates, crockery, and the white tablecloths as the venue already had tables and chairs. That’s when the hunt for these dinner-party essentials started.

I contacted a fellow Food Fairy after seeing her catering for a friend’s party. Her assistant was supposed to contact me. I waited and waited and decided to let her be. I was on limited time and needed people to respond quickly. Either God had a plan with me, or loadshedding had a life of its own orchestrating other people’s businesses, but one business after the other either did not come back to me. or was so expensive that I wondered, “Wie gebruik die mense? Sit hulle ’n ekstra nul aan die kwotasie-bedrae as hulle agterkom ek is in Abu Dhabi?”. Oh No! I am not a child of this new era of making money before the party started.

Party planners quoted me R15 000. “Hi Francis. Ons huur nie self dekor uit nie, maar ons reël alles. Die diens is die beplanning en décor design. Ons vra R15 000 vir die diens en dan sluit dit nie verhuuring in nie. Laat weet as dit jou begroting pas. Groete.” My response: “Baie dankie, dis heeltemal buite my begroting.”

I sat down and thought of all our travels, thinking about the type of food I like most, and a theme started to form in my head. I have always liked the bright Turkish designs on their bowls and plates, I am in love with the Moroccan Harira lamb soup from a favorite restaurant in Abu Dhabi, and I love the exotic way people in the Middle East can dish up an easy family recipe. In my mind’s eye I saw Blue Creek during a winter’s day with the hazy smokiness of North Africa and the Middle East. The Moroccan theme for my 60th was set. Now, I had to figure how how to start making it happen!

I booked the venue. Instead of hiring the crockery, cutlery and décor, I decided to buy everything. My party would be the soft launch for my Hiring Business, Eben-Haeser (“Want,” het hy gesê, “tot nou toe het die Here ons gehelp.” 1 SAMUEL 7:12).

Everything just fell into place.

While the party planning started forming in my mind, we were moving some furniture between houses. I love collecting beautiful cups and teapots and as I packed them a thought flashed through my mind; “what if I start a bespoke hiring company that caters for bespoke events on a budget!” If I could not afford the companies that rent out their crockery and cutlery, many other women also couldn’t. Then I started merging my two ideas, and that set the trend for purchasing all my 60th party celebrations’ décor.

As Abu Dhabi and Dubai is known for sales of up to 90% I knew exactly what I wanted… and I love shopping for beautiful decorations. I started thinking out of the box. I looked at items and was wondering how I could use it more than one way, or how it would fit into my newly established hiring company. The easiness of the Moroccan theme gave me wings to combine items that would not have worked if I had chosen a traditional theme.

Cutlery: I love a heavy, good quality knife and fork. I wanted something different that would work in my business later too. So I chose the golden-coloured crockery. My 120 guests sitting at the different tables had about five different sets of cutlery. It stayed with the theme, but now I can rent out different designs of cutlery for different events.

Table ware: I toyed with the idea of colorful tablecloths with a splash of white in between. I saw tablecloths with beautiful flower designs online that would have looked amazing. But then a store in the mall had a sale and by sheer coincidence I spotted white table cloths with the golden borders. It fit well with the cutlery. I was sold. Then I found napkins (also on sale), and the basics for my table décor was set. A day later, I saw beautiful, colourful duvet covers in the colours of my theme for a very affordable price at another shop. I decided that they would be smart and colorful for the dessert tables and I emptied the shelves! The duvet covers were about R80 each and they draped my dessert tables in Moroccan reds, orange and purple marvelously. Nobody at the function knew that the tablecloths were indeed duvet covers.

Other table décor: As mentioned earlier, I collect beautiful things. I found an amazing antique shop in Brackenfell. I browsed their online shop, and the silver chandeliers on the tables came from them. I am using those in the future as it fits into my home décor too.

Flowers: I wanted a clean, understated look that would not compete with the vibrant colours on the tables. Gypsophila are always used as a filler in flower decorations. I decided to let the small flowers tell their own story. The bushes also contrasted well with the dark high ceilings of the venue, keeping the eyes on the décor and the crockery. Four bunches of brightly coloured flowers in my Moroccan-theme colours were spread out on the perimeter of the room making the big hall feel cosy and intimate without putting a damper on the vibrant colours. The huge bunches of flowers also delineated the different spaces.

Crockery: The crockery was the biggest stress factor. How would I buy and ship 120 sets of the beautiful Turkish, Arabian and Moroccan designed crockery to South Africa in time for the party? Everything started to fall into place. I had a Pinterest board named "All things Moroccan", and got almost all my ideas from there. I googled the plates and found a company called Villa Allegra in Johannesburg and they gave me a huge discount because of the size of my order.

Doing everything myself was the best decision that I made. The party was an enormous success and the venue looked transformed. Even the winter weather was not a factor anymore due to the warmth inside.